San Marino

Today we visited the country of San Marino. It is a tiny country that is completely surrounded by Italy and has a population of around 34,000 people.

I was going to explain why it is a country, but it got so complicated, and there are so many myths and legends that all I will say is that it was founded in 301 AD.

We caught a bus to the bottom of a mountain, and followed quite a steep path up to the top.

The trail was very well marked, but frustrating at times as the path sometimes went steeply down before going up again.

Once at the top we came to the first of three towers that used to guard San Marino from many invaders.

About half a mile further on was the second tower, but this one much more like a castle.

It was balanced right on the edge of the vertical clifftop, and looking back you could see the tower that we had just left behind.

We were up in the clouds and occasionally the sky would clear, but mostly we couldn't even see down to the valley below.

However, looking ahead of us we could just about see the third fortification, which was the biggest and main castle.

We walked up to this one over a superb bridge.

We had paid to go inside, so we tried to get to the highest point possible, and climbed up an almost vertical ladder and through a narrow gap to get there.

Standing at the bottom looking up I am not sure which tower it was, but probably this one.

Overall, it is probably the most castlely castle that we have ever been to. If Robin Hood had ever got to see it I think that he would agree too.

Moving on to the town, our castle tickets included entry to various museums and attractions. I didn't fancy the Torture Museum, or the Stamp and Coin Museum, or even the Curiosities Museum.

But the Palazzo Pubblico was beautiful, and is their Parliament Building. We went inside and it was just as good as the outside, with a fantastic debating hall.

Then we went to the Modern Art Museum, that was in a great building, but very much lacking in art I think.

Best exhibit was the seven dwarves who were having a conversation with famous people from history. (Sorry I have forgotten who, and Daz didn't even read the description).

Finally we left the fortified town and sat in a bar to wait for our bus back to Rimini.

Bologna to Rimini

 A busy and tiring day today, but also really good.

We started off with an early run in Bologna along part of the longest portico in the world. It is the Portico do San Luca and it is nearly 4 kilometres long with 666 arches.

It is also very steep uphill on the outward journey up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.

We made it most of the way, but didn't get right to the top, as it was a bit too far and we had a train to catch.

We caught the train from Bologna to the seaside town of Rimini.

As soon as we got off the train we preferred it to Bologna which was pretty polluted and smoggy, whereas Rimini was bright, clean and airy.

We went on a lovely walk this afternoon, starting with a stroll along the beach.

It looks a bit strange at this time of year, but in the summer the left of the photo is filled with umbrellas,sun loungers and sunbathers, and the raised area is a walkway to keep the sea breezes away.

There is a good promenade and a marina complete with a lighthouse.

But best thing of all is that Rimini was one of the richest towns in the Roman Empire, so the guide book tells me. This was in terms of wealth, culture and heritage. After listening to The Rest is History for many hours whilst driving, it is a big favourite thing for me.

Julius Caesar crossed the famous Rubicon River near here and made a legendary speech in the Forum at Rimini.

The Emperor Augustus built a fantastic arch into the town.

And the Emporer Tiberius built a Bridge and Amphitheatre.

Over time a lot of the town was destroyed, and the Amphitheatre is now mostly gone and a school now stands in what used to be the seating area.

World War Two also did a lot of damage, but it still has some lovely squares and painted buildings.

I think you can tell that I like this place.

Bologna, Italy

We arrived yesterday early evening, and set off this morning to explore. "Due cappuccino, per fervore" I said to the café owner next door in my best Italian accent.

"Do you want coffee?" he replied. "Cappuccino" said I, one or two he asked, "two please", I replied.

Still not sure what I did wrong. Anyway, a nice start to the day.

Once out in Bologna we set off under a portico, apparently there are more than 40 kilometres of them in the city.

Very soon we came to our first famous sight, a tiny window.....

..... with a nice view of a river.

Good, but not a patch on Venice.

They definitely didn't have the next sight in Venice though. Two giant towers that were built between 1,109 and 1,119. Unfortunately they are closed for repairs at the moment and like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, one of the towers leans very badly due to subsidence.

We carried on and found many more porticos, some with beautiful paintings and arches.

Some with more graffiti than others.

Oslo to home

 It's our final day in Norway and our ship has docked back in Oslo ready for our flight home this afternoon.

We have been on a last walk along the Oslo waterfront, and it was around -8 centigrade.

There is a river that flows into the fjord and it is partly frozen, but the Ice is very thick at slower sections around lots of modern apartment blocks.

Interesting facts about Oslo - it was founded in around 1050 on the other side of the river to where the centre of town is today.

In 1397 the country was taken over and ruled by Denmark, and in 1624 there was a massive fire that destroyed the whole town.

King Christian IV of Denmark came to visit after the fire and pointed to a new spot on the ground and commanded that that was where the town would be rebuilt, and renamed Christiania.

I don't think that the Norwegians were super keen on this ruling, and this monument seems to be rather sarcastic.

In 1814 they got their country back and started ruling it themselves again and in 1925 they renamed the city Oslo.

We carried on our walk to the Town Hall, a very imposing and austere looking building that apparently celebrates all of the workers of Oslo.

Inside it is covered in murals of Norwegians either working or jumping around with very few clothes on.

Kristiansand

Our last day today and in the morning we passed by the southern most point of Norway.

It was a lighthouse on a little island with a very interesting history, and we sailed by and saw it in the distance.

On this holiday we have seen the northern, southern and western points. I think that the eastern point borders with Russia so is not so accessible, although we did get very near to it on a previous Hurtigrurten cruise.

Our destination today was Kristiansand, and we were expecting it to be the warmest port on our trip. However, it was minus 5 or lower with quite a significant wind chill.

Right on the seafront just opposite to where we docked was a museum in an old silo and an amazing theatre made of glass and wavey wooden cladding. It was also the first time that we saw mini icebergs floating down the river to the fjord.

The town was a reasonable size with a nice church and decorative buildings.

However, yet again we found another beautiful lake to wander around. This one had little undulating paths and I managed to slip over for the fourth time this holiday. Fortunately it was in slow motion so no damage done.

However possibly the best sight of the day was a frozen fjord.

Bergen

Which is the wettest city in Europe? Yes, it's Bergen. On all of our previous visits it has been raining. Not today though.

The sun shone brightly as we walked through narrow street full of pretty wooden houses.

Obviously, we had to find a hill to hike up, although we did very briefly discuss going up on the very convenient funicular railway.

That plan was dismissed, but as we have walked this route before, and there was lots of other people around, it was sadly lacking in the element of danger that was there every other day of our trip.

Having said that, the route down through a pine forest with frozen streams and huge mounds of moss everywhere made up for this by being absolutely beautiful.